ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 736

Why Does Cilantro Taste Like Soap to Some People?

Plants and Animals





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Are you keen on this leafy green? HandmadePictures/Shutterstock

The addition of the herb cilantro (or ‘coriander’ in the U.K.) can make or break a meal, taking a dish from a delectable cuisine to a dining disaster in a few bites.

Strangely, some people are adverse to cilantro because they perceive a soapy aftertaste. And, as it turns out, your genetics may play a role in whether you taste that odd flavor or not.

Scientists Develop Self-Healing Airplane Wing

Technology





Photo credit:

Kamenetskiy Konstantin/Shutterstock

We’ve already had self-healing concrete, now welcome to the world of self-healing airplane wings. After having worked quietly on the project for the past three years, a team of British scientists has now announced a new carbon fiber technology that, when damaged, can fix itself.

Greedy Galaxy is Getting Bigger

Space





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The halo of galaxy Messier 87. ESO.

Galaxies have a trait that is envied by foodies everywhere: They can gobble up other stars, matter and galaxies without increasing their waistline. Any swallowed stars just merge with the galaxy. However, astronomers have spotted one nearby giant galaxy that doesn't seem to have this constant size. It is continuing to expand as it gorges itself on galactic matter.

Conservationists to Engrave Every Critically Endangered Ploughshare Tortoise

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Ryan M. Bolton/Shutterstock

With only around 500 of the critters left, plodding around the dry forests of northern Madagascar, the ploughshare tortoise is highly desired by poachers and collectors alike. Unfortunately, this has led the team over at the Durrell Wildlife Trust to take drastic action. Against all of their will, they’ve finally decided that the only thing left to do is to deface each and every wild tortoise.

Military Explosions Caused Mass Whale Stranding

Plants and Animals





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Rescuers trying to refloat the whales on the day they were stranded. DEFRA

Four years ago on the north coast of Scotland, 39 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves as the tide was going out. Rescue teams managed to save just over half of the cetaceans, but what caused this mass stranding event has been the center of speculation ever since. Most attention has, however, been focused on the Royal Navy testing ground located in the area.

Some Corals are Already Adapting to Warmer Oceans

Environment





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Far Northern Great Barrier Reef. Line K Bay/AIMS

Coral reefs are far from just a natural beauty of the sea; they are one of the most diverse and economically valuable ecosystems on Earth. By providing us with food, tourism, recreation, jobs, medicine and protection from storms, to name a few, they rake in an estimated $30 billion each year. But if we don’t do something soon, we can kiss these services goodbye: around 20% of our reefs are already dead, mainly due to rising temperatures and ocean acidification.

Someone Set Fire to Coffee Shop Owned by Jesus-Loving Mayor; Guess Who He Blamed?

Earlier Wednesday morning, the Will Rogers Coffee Company in Texas caught on fire, damaging part of the exterior wall and melting some freezers inside the building.

Security footage — not yet public — supposedly revealed someone driving up near the building and throwing something at it (in an act of arson).

As it turns out, Will Rogers also doubles as Mayor of Hawkins, Texas, a city I’ve posted about in recent weeks because of the giant “Jesus Welcomes You to Hawkins” sign greeting visitors:

So, of course, Rogers had a hunch about what happened to his coffee shop:

Rogers said he believes the restaurant was targeted by someone who’s upset by Hawkins’ recent commitment to a Christian message. As mayor, he has spearheaded a move toward faith in the community.

Good catch!

Here’s a pretty amazing catch by Josh Donaldson, the third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. At the time, Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada was working on a perfect game against Tampa (a game in which none of your opponents even reach first base), and Donaldson, dove into the stands to catch a foul ball, which put the batter out.

As the announcer said, “You know, if a guy is doing what he is doing on the mound, you gotta give up your body—and that’s exactly what Donaldson did: he’s determined on making this catch.”

See this video for another superb catch by Donaldson. This is a man with moxie.

Sadly, the next batter hit a slow roller to third base and beat the throw to first, ruining Estrada’s perfect game. But the Blue Jays still won in the 12th with a home run (Estrada had already been pulled from the mound).

Origin-of-Life Story May Have Found Its Missing Link

by Jesse Emspak

How did life on Earth begin? It’s been one of modern biology’s greatest mysteries: How did the chemical soup that existed on the early Earth lead to the complex molecules needed to create living, breathing organisms? Now, researchers say they’ve found the missing link.

Between 4.6 billion and 4.0 billion years ago, there was probably no life on Earth. The planet’s surface was at first molten and even as it cooled, it was getting pulverized by asteroids and comets. All that existed were simple chemicals. But about 3.8 billion years ago, the bombardment stopped, and life arose. Most scientists think the “last universal common ancestor” — the creature from which everything on the planet descends — appeared about 3.6 billion years ago.

But exactly how that creature arose has long puzzled scientists. For instance, how did the chemistry of simple carbon-based molecules lead to the information storage of ribonucleic acid, or RNA? The RNA molecule must store information to code for proteins. (Proteins in biology do more than build muscle — they also regulate a host of processes in the body.)

The new research — which involves two studies, one led by Charles Carter and one led by Richard Wolfenden, both of the University of North Carolina — suggests a way for RNA to control the production of proteins by working with simple amino acids that does not require the more complex enzymes that exist today.

Read the full article by clicking the name of the source located below.

How We Found Signs Of ‘Recent’ Running Water On Mars

Space





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The ice caps on Mars could have been the source of the water flows. ESA, CC BY-SA

A hot topic in science over the past few decades has been whether liquid water is present or has been present on Mars in the past few millions of years. But despite a lot of research no conclusive answer has been put forward to date. Our international team has now hunted down another piece of evidence. By comparing satellite images of Mars with mud flows on Earth, we found that running water must have existed on the red planet relatively “recently”, in the past million years.